


Entropy: Where there is Nothing, there is Chaos

by gwennyhen



Category: Original Work
Genre: Chaos, Demons, Gen, Mentions of Death, Suicide Attempt, Unhappy Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 12:03:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15242994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwennyhen/pseuds/gwennyhen
Summary: She was always there, in his peripheral, so in order to find her he simply turned around late one night as he walked home, and came face to face with her. Her name was Entropy, and she didn’t care about him.





	Entropy: Where there is Nothing, there is Chaos

Her presence was subtle, to the point where the noises she made could’ve been the rustling of trees outside, or the house settling. 

Still, houses and trees never filled him with an organ-churning sense of dread before, and they didn’t giggle, as she was prone to do in the late hours of the night, when he should’ve been sleeping. Sleep hadn’t been a very kind friend to him recently, seeing as every time he closed his eyes, he saw her face, white like a spore, with eyes the color of hydrangeas. 

However discreet she was, she made herself known, even to the point where his brother had started to notice something was off. 

“Are you sleeping?” His eyes.

“Do you need some water?” His shaking hands.

“Is everything okay at school?” His silence.

All the while she grinned over his shoulder like the mad bitch that she was, if demons could be mad. Perhaps it was in their nature, and if that was the case, he pitied the fact that she would never feel peace again.

Then again, now he never could, either.

And there was an undeniable dread in the fact that as her presence was established in his space and in his brain, she began to occupy the space as well, in a way that was incongruent with the pounding disgust that the mere idea of her brought. The idea of the demon was something to be feared, even detested, but as is prone to most of humanity, given enough time we will pick apart our situations like spider legs and lay it out on the table to discuss.

This is what led him to the train of thought, that led him to another train of thought, that led him to the idea that maybe, even if she herself was a demon, perhaps her emotions were human. 

She did seem fairly innocuous at first glance, aside from her pallid skin, and her ghost-light eyes. Her voice had a musical tonality to it, and he was reminded of a music box his mother used to own, which had long since gone silent with age.

These are all valid reasoning for why he began his search for humanity within this demon's soul, but they are not, initially, why he approached her that day. The truth is sad and common, like most of the instances in his life thus far, but it was, nonetheless, the truth.

He was lonely.

 

To say that he approached her was a bit of a stretch. 

She was always there, in his peripheral, so in order to find her he simply turned around late one night as he walked home, and came face to face with her. Her name was Entropy, and she didn’t care about him.

He had yet to realize this, however so he started off with a simple “Hello.”

“Hello,” she replied. Somehow, the uniformity of the answer surprised him.

“So um, how’s the deal going?”

She cocked her head, a childlike gesture that almost put him at ease. “Pardon?”

“The, you know, ‘all the knowledge in the universe thing.’ The thing you promised me.”

“Well,” she tittered like a bird. “You had your own end of that bargain to hold up, didn’t you? And I haven’t seen any of that yet.”

Her request was simple in layman's terms, but so bizarre and gruesome that he was still processing it, even after a week. All the organs in your body, she said. Not a question-a demand. Give me that and in return I’ll give you all the knowledge in the universe.

He hadn’t carried through yet, obviously, and though fear was a main reason, he also simply didn’t know how he would carry her request out. Did he call a surgeon? Did he use magic, if such a thing existed? Where will all the knowledge go, he asked her, if I no longer have a brain? 

I’m sure all the knowledge in the universe will have something for you, she said, and nothing more.

“Though that’s not why you’re speaking to me, is it?” she asked. 

“I want to talk.”

“Heh. Soon you’ll essentially be a god, with no need for a second-tier spirit like me. I don’t think my conversation will do you any good.”

“Then why are you following me?”

“To hold you accountable for your end of the bargain.”  
He wasn’t frightened, exactly. After all, his body was so small and insignificant, compared to what he would be receiving. Unsettled, was more like it, by the idea and by its intention, which was still a mystery to him. 

As a matter of fact, Entropy as a whole was a massive enigma, from her origin to her motives to her battered dress, still dry despite the rain that poured down on the grimy alleyway.

And it was the image of her perched across from him, face half-hidden in shadows, gaunt and frail but with immeasurable power stored in the light of her eyes, that finally made him wither, and fall, and give up.

“I forfeit,” he said.

Her response was simple. “You can’t.”

He was being backed into a corner, with seemingly no choice but to carry through. A sickening dread pooled in his stomach at the look of unbattered resilience on her face. It wasn’t as though he feared his fate. Necessarily, but he did fear her.

All the knowledge in the world, and he didn’t even want it anymore. All wanted was to be rid of her, at any cost. Even death was acceptable, so long as it meant he could find some peace from the chaos that seemed to follow her wherever she tread, no matter what she was doing.

“Why not?”Or better yet, what if I do it anyway?

Her form was relaxed, her shoulders slouched forward and her legs crossed, and every single movement she made read nonchalance and casualty.

“How about this,” she began. “What’s the worse thing that's ever happened to you?”

That was a no-brainer. “My parents died.”

“Right. And that was awful, wasn’t it? You’re brother completely shut down, hiding in his room for days, barely eating anything even after you practically shoved it down his throat.” Her eyes narrowed. “Not like you. You could barely get your grubby little hands away from the dessert table during the reception, or after that. You gorged yourself like a pig, maybe because it made you feel right for a fleeting instant, or maybe because it's hard to thank the millionth condolance you received when your mouth is full of food. Afterwards you puked like an animal in the bathroom, and your aunt found you and thought you were bulimic. You went to therapy for it for six months. For something you didn’t even need. It was humiliating, wasn’t it?”

“I….I don’t need to hear this.”  
“But you don’t even know about the worse part. The medical bills from your parents practically bled your brothers funds dry. He did a good job of hiding it, I’ll admit, but even you noticed that something was wrong. He couldn’t handle it anymore, the stress of raising you and the financial burden he carried was too much. So one day, he drove to the store and picked out a jump rope. Needless to say, he wasn’t buying it because he needed the exercise-Are you okay? Your breathings getting kinda heavy. Try to calm down, you may want to hear this next part. So he gets in line for checkout, and the rope rings up as twelve dollars. So he looks in his wallet, and…”she smiled softly. “He couldn’t afford it.

That was the lowest part. Your brother was too poor to even hang himself at this point, so he had nothing left to do but go home and suffer, like he always did. But that was months ago, after all, and he’s gotten better. He has a job now, doesn’t he? And you two seem to be pulling everything together nicely.

It’s an uneasy peace at best, however. He’s a house of cards, and an unruly gust of wind could carry him away and he’d be done for. 

So here’s what's gonna happen if you bail on me now. I’m going to do something to you so horrible and painful that your brother will break like a toothpick. Of course it will hurt for you too, but all the pain and suffering in the world will be nothing compared to what he has to do as he watches, unable to stop it as his last remaining family is boiled alive in the darkest pits of Hell, or flayed open centimeter by centimeter, or gutted or stabbed or whatever I feel like. I’m very creative, you know. And afterwards, in the wreckage of your eviscerated corpse, he’ll be a ruined, shell-shocked vegetable of a man. He’ll have no choice but to try and carry out the choice he tried to make months ago. That, or just live with it, and wallow in his dusty bedroom, until he finally realizes what it’s actually like to mourn the dead.”

Her words did not echo, as if space itself was shocked into silence.

“So please,” she continued. “If not for me, do it for him. It’s just a body, isn’t it?”

He took a deep, shaky breath that he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He wiped the rain off of is his, not realizing that the rain had stopped a long time ago, and that they were freshly fallen tears. “It’s just that…” he started. She quirked an eyebrow. “I’m not sure how to carry through.”

She laughed. “Is that all? Well, I can help you with that! Come here.” She beckoned to him gracefully. 

Fear had made a home in his body already, so it really had nowhere else to go when he asked “But why? Why do you want to take all the organs in my body, anyways?”

In the darkness of the shadows, he still could only partially make out her face, but her eyes bore through it like acid. He could see her mouth, though, and he saw it quirk upwards with amusement. “Why do we do anything? It’s because I can,” she said, and looked at him expectantly.

A wave of nausea rose up from within him, and he forced it down, took a heaving breath, and walked towards her.


End file.
